The big news in Topeka last week was passage of the compromise energy bill. The House-Senate Conference Committee reached agreement on the mega energy bill and the House and Senate both acted quickly to pass the measure overwhelmingly. The numbers in the Senate suggested veto-proof support while the House was still a few votes short of a veto-proof margin.
The bill would establish energy efficiency standards for state buildings and equipment. New and renovated state buildings would need to exceed by 10% national energy efficiency standards and property leased by the state would also have to meet national energy standards. In addition, new and existing energy generating plants would be required to use the best available technology to implement carbon dioxide capture. For the first time ever, a renewable energy standard would be placed in law. By 2012 at least 10% of the 3-year average peak load of public and cooperative electric utilities would need to come from renewable resources, increasing to a 15% requirement by 2016 and 20% by 2020.
Net metering for solar energy would be available to the public under the legislation. Customers would receive a credit applied to the succeeding billing period, equal to at least 150% of the avoided energy cost, for electricity generated in excess of that provided by the utility. The bill would also create tax incentives for energy efficient improvements to non-owner occupied housing units and would require mercury emission reduction of 80% by generating units beginning operation after January 1, 2008 and which use coal to produce over 10% of their heat input. Finally, the bill would put in place procedures for Sunflower Electric to reapply for permits to build their two new coal-fired plants based on current state and federal rules and regulations. Even with the strong bi-partisan support and energy efficiency reforms the Governor is expected to veto the bill, setting up a possible veto override.
At this point in the session several of the key planks of the Republican majority platform in the House are becoming reality, including a new law allowing all county election officers to designate advance satellite voting locations in the state. Campaign reform legislation has now passed over to the Senate for consideration there and the historic state budget transparency project is now a reality. On March 1 a new state searchable database for Kansans to keyword search their government’s receipts and expenditures went on-line at www.kanas.gov/kanview/. The House is also well on its way of holding the growth in state spending this year to 5%.
Other priorities include criminal sentencing reform, limiting the discretion of courts to grant probation in serious sex offenses and requiring jail and prison time for chronic repeat property theft offenders and drunk drivers. Hearings have been underway on the issue of illegal immigration, which I’ll talk about more next week and the House Tax Committee has kicked out legislation to reform the corporate tax structure by closing certain tax loopholes and reducing the top rate from 7.35% to 6.85%. The House Tax Committee is also working on legislation that would make more uniform sales tax exemptions for not-for-profit organizations. There are over 30proposed sales tax exemption proposals pending in the House alone.